Chen Lingxi returned to his room and sat on the edge of the bed for a long time.
He turned over everything he had just seen and heard in the Divine Chamber, replaying it in his mind.
First was the Time Candle.
‘I traded with the Time Candle, and felt desire and greed... this is probably the Cauldron Calamity...’
‘No wonder Lin Suri wanted to sink it into the Yuanjiang. As for those three Talismanic Seals, they must have been meant to attract that Lu Baizhong.’
‘And the Six Qi True Art Lin Suri mentioned... Daoxia Academy.’
Chen Lingxi rolled these two names over his tongue.
‘The Six Qi True Art is that breathing technique.’
‘According to Lin Suri, this Six Qi True Art likely comes from that Daoxia Academy he spoke of.’
The breathing method he had obtained was merely stolen by observing Lin Suri's cultivation through the Vision Wander Divine Ability.Previously, Chen Lingxi only knew that the spiritual qi gained from breathing could nourish the physical body, stimulate vitality and blood, and even initiate Qi Circulation to enter the Dao. He had never known its name.
Much less did he know that the name was tied to some Daoxia Academy.
‘Lin Suri said I have never cultivated a technique formula, only the path of breathing and circulating qi.’ He recalled these words, his brows furrowing slightly.
What was a technique formula?
Was it a deeper method of cultivation that followed the breathing technique?
Lin Suri himself had reached the Qi Circulation 5th Floor, even sacrificing twenty years of his lifespan for a chance to break through to the sixth floor. It stood to reason that this “technique formula” was the key to ascending the floors.
Unfortunately, he didn't know it.
‘There is no rushing this matter. I can only leave it for the future and see if I can glean anything else from Lin Suri.’
Then there was that young man.
Lu Baizhong.
As Chen Lingxi murmured those three syllables, his brows knitted together.
He remembered Lu Baizhong's eyes.
A pure, lofty indifference.
Like a child watching ants move their nest—after watching, they simply reached out a finger and crushed them.
‘What a high opinion he has of himself.’
Chen Lingxi took a deep breath, suppressing the anger surging from the bottom of his heart.
‘If I were to accidentally encounter this person in the real world, I'm afraid he would just crush me to death. He wouldn't need a single reason.’
Chen Lingxi could faintly guess this person's background.
Long ago, when he used Vision Wander on Lin Suri, Lin Suri had met with that mysterious cultivator surnamed Chao and brought up the name Lu Baizhong.
In Yuanjiang Prefecture, aside from the Baosu Marquis Residence, there was also the renowned Lu Family.
‘This Lu Baizhong must be from the Lu Family.’
He closed his eyes to focus his mind, tucking away all these clues one by one to investigate later.
Outside the window, the sky gradually began to pale.
Chen Lingxi gathered his thoughts. He stood up, picked some flowers, arranged them in a vase, and carried the floral arrangement all the way to the West Courtyard East Hall.
In the East Hall, Lin Longyue was still practicing martial arts.
Wherever her palm winds passed, the floating dust on the bluestone floor tiles was swept completely clean.
It was exactly the same as what he had seen in the Divine Chamber.
While heading back through the West Courtyard, he once again ran into the steward, Liu Que, at the corner of the veranda.
He then went to the accounting room to collect his monthly silver allowance.
Ten taels.
Returning to his servant quarters, he stowed the silver away and sat down at the desk.
The room was extremely quiet, with only the occasional bird's chirp drifting in from outside the window.
Chen Lingxi exhaled a long breath of stale air. Looking at the empty vase on the desk, an indescribable sense of marvel welled up in his heart.
He had stayed in the Divine Chamber for four days.
Every little detail, every single event during those four days was exactly the same as what he was experiencing today.
It was as if the Divine Chamber wasn't calculating things, but predicting the future and forcibly shoving him into it.
The space of the Divine Chamber was like a reflection of the real world. Every leaf, every wisp of wind, every word and action of every person was completely transplanted inside.
“Too profound.”
Chen Lingxi murmured in awe.
“With a limit of ten days, it previews the future.”
“And... I have a premonition that as my cultivation climbs to higher floors, those ten days will become a hundred days, or even be measured in years.”
He steadied his mind, and his consciousness sank back into the Divine Chamber within his head.
The void of the Divine Chamber was still shrouded in mists of varying thickness.
But Chen Lingxi's gaze shot straight to the heights of the void.
Sure enough, those lines of golden tadpole text had changed.
[Divine Ability: Thorough Awakening (Restoration: One point one parts)]
The Perceiving Clear Divine Ability, which he had clearly already used once, now showed an additional “Restoration” status.
Appended at the end was the small text “one point one parts.” Chen Lingxi didn't quite understand it at first, but after focusing his thoughts for a moment, he realized what it meant.
One point one parts—that was still less than one-tenth.
‘It seems that practicing the breathing technique, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and cultivating spiritual qi can replenish the consumption of this Perceiving Clear Divine Ability. Once Restoration reaches ten-tenths, I will be able to use it again.’
As he thought this, he also felt that using terms like “parts” and “tenths” was far too vague.
How much exactly was one point one parts?
Ten parts made one-tenth, so one part was one-tenth of a tenth.
To reach ten-tenths, that would be a hundred parts?
‘I might as well just express it using the percentages from my past life.’
The moment the thought arose, those tadpole-like characters in the void suddenly twisted and deformed.
[Divine Ability: Thorough Awakening (Restoration: 1.1%)]
Chen Lingxi stared blankly.
‘...It can do that?’
After his marveling faded, Chen Lingxi withdrew his focus. His consciousness exited the Divine Chamber, and he found himself sitting before the elm desk once more.
[Concealed Edge Method].
[Cyan Edge Method].
Two methods, bought with fifty years of his lifespan, now lay peacefully within his mind.
‘I just wonder exactly how powerful these techniques are.’
Chen Lingxi felt a surge of excitement.
Closing his eyes to focus, he first went over the qi circulation pathways, the breath-concealing tricks, and the qi aperture checkpoints of the Concealed Edge Method one by one.
‘This technique emphasizes being “like dull iron and dead wood on the outside, while concealing a thunderous edge within.” It uses spiritual qi as a guide to construct a barely-there barrier between the dantian and the meridians of the entire body, completely masking the aura of the spiritual qi and the fluctuations of vitality and blood.’
Chen Lingxi summarized in his mind.
It sounded simple, but actually executing it was a completely different matter.
Sitting cross-legged, he caused the thumb-thick cyan qi in his dantian to slowly circulate, following the path recorded in the Concealed Edge Method toward several checkpoints: the Sea of Qi, the Gate of Life, and the Great Vertebra.
Just as it reached the very first checkpoint, the Sea of Qi, the spiritual qi seemed to slam into an invisible wall. It abruptly scattered and rolled back into his dantian, stirring up a churning sensation in his chest and abdomen.
‘Extremely difficult.’
He took a deep breath and started over.
The second time, he passed the Sea of Qi, but got stuck at the Gate of Life.
The third time, he passed the Gate of Life as well, but got stuck at the Tailbone.
The fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time...
He struggled for nearly half a shichen, failing over thirty times.
Sweat beaded on Chen Lingxi's forehead, and his breathing grew somewhat heavy, but his eyes only shone brighter.
With every failure, his perception of the spiritual qi's circulation path became a fraction clearer.
The sense of blockage at those few checkpoints also gradually loosened under the repeated impacts.
Finally.
On the fifty-second attempt, that streak of cyan qi passed through all the checkpoints without the slightest sluggishness, circulated one full rotation through the meridians of his entire body, and finally returned to his dantian.
In an instant, Chen Lingxi felt his whole body lighten.
It was as if an invisible veil had been lifted from him.
He looked down at his hands. The layer of warm, jade-like luster beneath his skin quietly receded, and the faintly permeating fluctuations of spiritual qi vanished without a trace.
If he closed his eyes at this moment, he would feel no different than he did before sitting cross-legged to breathe. Although that streak of spiritual qi in his dantian was still there, it was now wrapped in an incredibly thin, incredibly resilient barrier, kept absolutely secret without leaking out.
‘It worked.’
A gleam of joy flashed in Chen Lingxi's eyes.
The Concealed Edge Method had achieved initial success. From now on, as long as he didn't actively circulate his spiritual qi to fight someone, even those immersed in Qi Circulation might not easily see through the fact that he possessed cultivation.
He took a breather and cast his thoughts to the second method.
The Cyan Edge Method.
This method was completely different from the Concealed Edge.
The Concealed Edge retracted inwards, while the Cyan Edge erupted outwards.
It emphasized “qi striking like a sword, with unparalleled sharpness.” It condensed spiritual qi into an incredibly thin, incredibly sharp strand of cyan edge-qi, breaking out of the body to crush anything in its path.
Following the method's description, Chen Lingxi guided the spiritual qi out of his dantian, slowly advancing it along the meridians of his right arm. At the same time, he used his intent to continuously compress and compact that streak of cyan qi.
This was more than twice as hard as the Concealed Edge Method.
Spiritual qi was originally an intangible thing. When circulated normally, it was like mercury spilling on the ground, naturally spreading out.
To forcibly confine it within a single thread at this moment was like trying to stuff a wild horse into a bamboo tube. The slightest carelessness would waste all his efforts.
‘This method is very likely to become my greatest reliance in the future.’
Chen Lingxi attempted to cultivate it.
The first time, the cyan qi scattered explosively the moment it condensed at the Jianjing acupoint, numbing his entire right arm from the shock.
The tenth time, the cyan qi dispersed at his elbow. A very faint trace of residual cyan force burst from his fingertip, slicing off a small chunk from the edge of a coarse pottery bowl on the desk.
The thirtieth time, the cyan qi reached his wrist.
The eightieth time, the cyan qi finally condensed at the tip of his index finger.
Chen Lingxi clenched his jaw, using his intent to tightly clamp down on that streak of cyan qi that was about to scatter, and thrust it forward with a jerk!
Swish—
An incredibly thin beam of cyan light shot from his fingertip, fast as a flying arrow, plunging headlong into the leg of the square elm table a step away.
A soft crack rang out.
A fingernail-wide sword mark appeared on the table leg. Its edges were smooth as a mirror, without a single splinter to be found.
Chen Lingxi was covered in sweat, breathing rapidly, his face frighteningly pale.
The thumb-thick spiritual qi in his dantian had less than half of its volume left.
He looked down at his fingers, then at the sword mark on the table leg. There was not a shred of dejection in his eyes; instead, they shone blindingly bright.
‘The Cyan Edge Method... truly possesses such tremendous power.’
Moreover, he was still a Bronze-Red Realm martial artist. The Cyan Edge Method was already peerlessly sharp by itself; if he launched it infused with his Bronze Slurry Qi, its power would inevitably reach a higher level, and enemies would find it impossible to defend against.
However...
‘A single casting consumes nearly half of my spiritual qi. In other words, with my current cultivation, I can unleash the Cyan Edge Method twice at most.’
‘Twice is enough.’
‘I still need to diligently practice both methods. At the very least, I must be able to use the Cyan Edge Method as easily as moving my own arm.’
Chen Lingxi slowly curled his fingers into a fist, retracting the residual cyan light from his fingertips.
The room once again fell into silence.
His gaze shifted to the window.
The sun had already reached high noon. Blinding sunlight spilled through the window lattices, landing on the bluestone floor tiles to cast a patch of warm light.
He suddenly remembered that incident in the Divine Chamber.
—Wang Kong was bringing two brawny men with him, searching the entire street for him.
“Chief Steward Zhao has ordered that if we don't catch him today, you'll be the ones held responsible.”
Wang Kong's shrill voice still echoed in his ears.
Wang Kong should have just entered the Bronze-Red Realm.
That day in the back garden, he had to dodge twice in succession to barely avoid Wang Kong's fist, and the hairline fracture on his forearm bone still bore faint traces to this day.
But now, he had reached minor accomplishment in the Bronze-Red Realm, cultivated the Mountain-Collapsing Force, and even possessed a killer method like the Cyan Edge Method.
Chen Lingxi's gaze fell on that mirror-smooth sword mark on the table leg.
‘You want to capture me while I go to the government office to report in?’
‘I'll see just what you're made of, Wang Kong.’